Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Living with a Thankful Spirit - Martin Wiles

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.Hebrews 12:28 NLTI received his message as I sat down at my computer to write. The message read simply, “I’ve been enjoying your Love Lines. Can you send me your number?” Ironically, I had just thought about my friend a week or so before. Almost eight years had passed since we’d sat down and reminisced. He and I had been work associates right after we graduated from high school—36 years ago, but our lives had taken us in different directions. Periodically, we’d spend some time catching up. Excitedly, I sent him my number. Within five minutes, my phone rang. His voice sounded the same—his spirit just as chipper as I remember it always had been. For the next thirty minutes, we caught up on the last eight years. I was thankful I had a good friend. Though the miles separated us, I knew I could depend on him if I truly needed him. First century inhabitants also had reason to be thankful if they listened to and accepted the message of the early apostles. Their contemporaries may have killed Jesus and placed his body in a cold tomb, but God had raised him up and validated salvation for anyone who chose to believe. An eternal kingdom awaited them.I’m not always as thankful as I should be. Sometimes it takes a call from an old acquaintance to remind me what I’ve had and what I still have. Among the many things I don’t have on earth that I might enjoy having, the eternal things ahead outweigh them all and should prompt me to give thanks in the present.I have a promise from an eternal God that he knows and will supply my needs and a further promise that he has an eternal home prepared for me to enjoy. By worshiping him in truth and spirit, I show my thankfulness for these two promises and many more he gives. Are you demonstrating a thankful spirit?Prayer: Father, we thank You for all that’s good and for Your love for us. The
war claimed Daphne Kelley’s young husband’s life, but it couldn’t keep Raymond.
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